What makes a hero a hero? This episode went all out in exploring that as well as using Dammy’s psychological mind games to expose the weaknesses of the heroes.
While there’s no doubt they have been doing heroic deeds all along, hearing Ken say, “I will never surrender to evil” was icing on the cake. Without skipping a beat, when asked by Emi why they fight even if they have no powers, almost in unison Takeshi, Casshern, and Joji speak to their inner-most thoughts about what it takes to be a hero. Powers or not, they fight evil because it’s the right thing to do and because they have the will to do so. This is a great step forward in this show. For the longest time, Emi has been confused and, therefore, understandably irritated at these 4 superhumans for protecting her when she never asked them to (and certainly doesn’t want them to). In the past episodes, we’ve seen this mentality kind of flicker on and off. While she claims she wants this all to end or, at the very least, have nothing to do with it, she passed up on the chance to give Dammy the Case during the meteor incident. My thinking is this will solidify that thought in her head. Judging by the laughter when Ken asks for curry rice at the end, it looks like things are back on track. The break in Ken’s usually stoic-ness and Emi’s willingness to actually cook him the meal show’s the progression that’s happened since episode one. It’s a little surprising that Emi is still complaining so much though. Classic tsundere!
Ken taking on Dammy was unexpected. It seemed like they were building up a lot of tension between Dammy and Takeshi. Their previous encounters paired their clashing personalities well, in a similar manner to how Casshern and Raja interacted. Regardless, still a cool fight. It’s ironic enough to make me laugh (ok, maybe not laugh, but inhale slightly deeper than usual) that the whole time Dammy was playing mind games with everyone but then he ended up acting so predictably that Ken was able to set a trap for him. And then he got stabbed in the eye with 3 steel poles. That scream on the way down. RIP Dammy’s left eye.
Ken clearly was meant to shine in this episode and oh boy did he. Sure, sure, their suits are super cool. Making tornadoes and lightning, I guess that’s cool. You know what’s even more badass though? 
How about after losing your powers, showing up to the fight with a crossbow slung across your back and a crowbar in the other hand. While Ken was definitely played up, respect must be given to Friender too. I mean, he tried really hard to get Casshern to notice the gas, got thrown off of the building and then came back, destroyed the robo-guards, and then saved Ken from falling to his death. Now we both know that a robo-cat wouldn’t have done any of that.
Another enlightening thing from this episode, that’ll probably never be referenced again (but that’s ok, Infini-T), is Dammy pointing out the specific weaknesses of each hero. Compassion for Takeshi, overanalyzing for Joji, and… not having a nose for Casshern. Ok, ok. Technically it was having a superhuman body, but in layman terms, his weakness was not having a nose and copious amounts of fire. Which, I mean, isn’t a super rare weakness to have. Jokes aside, in an ideal series, this would hopefully come back in the form of them learning to compensate. Takeshi’s would be a difficult balance, but Casshern is already working on getting his taste and senses back and Joji just needs to be a bit more flexible in his thinking.
Does anyone else feel like Dammy is probably going to be the better ‘final boss’ when all is said and done? Apart from Zed being Emi’s father, it kind of feels like he’s separated from all of this by a few degrees. 
Dammy’s merciless psychological games that antagonize the heroes but overall teach them about themselves is usually a solid trait in the last boss situation. For the first 5 minutes of this episode, I had literally no idea what was going on but I knew Dammy would probably make it interesting.
Can’t lie though, that text Emi got from her dad had me feeling pretty suspenseful. Do you think he knows that she knows that he’s destroying universes? How would you even explain that to your child?
“Honestly Emi, I just didn’t want to have to give you ‘the talk’. You were starting to get around that age. I mean, blowing up universes is SO much easier. I thought we could just talk about this universe situation, skip that whole other thing. You know?”
Well, anyway, here we go! A confrontation is imminent and judging by Emi’s “Eh?” when she got the text, it looks like it’s gonna be good! I’m plenty excited to say the least.